Information for parents regarding requesting EHC needs assessment can be found in I'm a parent.
If after following the graduated approach toolkit, assess, plan, do, review cycle and implementing the advice from specialist services. It is predicted that very few children/young people will require an education health and care assessment and plan. If you are requesting an EHC assessment needs to demonstrate evidence that advice has been sought and acted on, following ongoing assess, plan, do, review cycles. This evidence should then be able to demonstrate why the child/young person requires this high level of intervention and provision.
Professionals
Requests can come from any professional working with a child, young person or family for an EHC Assessment. A request for an assessment will usually be made by a school or post 16 institutions. However, parents (or an advocate on their behalf) and other professionals can also make a request. Young people over the age of 16 (or an advocate on their behalf) also have a right to request an EHC assessment. For more information, visit parent and young person over 16.
The decision to draw up an EHC plan will depend on the severity of a child’s/young person’s needs and the steps previously taken to try to meet those needs. The request should identify where evidence of the child’s/young person’s needs may be found, and the provision/support previously offered.
An assessment of the child/young person's needs will accompany the request. This assessment will describe outcomes for the child/young person and provision needed to meet the outcomes. The information submitted with the request should be as up to date as possible.
Best practice would suggest that schools and settings will be able to show evidence of educational psychology involvement in planning intervention for the child/young person, as part of a graduated approach.
All the documents needed to support a referral can be found in related documents.
Please note: The EHC referral form will need to be physically signed by the parent/carer prior to submission.
How do I submit a request?
Electronic referrals are encouraged and can be submitted to EHC Referrals, or by post to SEND Service, Wigan Life Centre (South), 2nd Floor, Wigan, WN1 1NJ. Should you be experiencing difficulties, please contact Wigan's SEND team who will be able to support.
EHC summary assessment
The Local Authority’s expectation would be that the individual would gather evidence over time, whilst ensuring that all evidence remains relevant. However, once the Multi-agency panel has agreed that the assessment should go ahead all the professionals involved with the child/young person will be asked to either confirm that their advice is current and identify appropriate outcomes, or provide up to date advice with outcomes to be sought.
A professional summary form is available for professionals to provide updated information. By following good practice, the process of submitting a request should be easy.
Once the EHC assessment information is complete, a plan co-ordinator will consider all the advice and will be submitted to the multi-agency panel for a decision on whether to issue an EHCP or not draw up a summary assessment. The multi-agency panel will consider the summary of the information below:
- Those assessments undertaken prior to the request and any additional assessments undertaken as a result of the request
- The child/young person’s needs across education, health and care
- The specific outcomes to be achieved and the provision to meet those outcomes
- The views of the child/young person and their family on how they would like services to be delivered.
Following a request for an EHC assessment, the EHC panel meet too:
- Check that the request meets the severity and process criteria
- Identify who will undertake a key working/first point of contact role
- Agree what additional advice might be sought and arrange for this to take place.
Find out more about EHC needs assessments.
Parents can request for an assessment themselves but it is recommended that they speak to a member of staff where the child is placed first. Further information can be found under parent, carer young person 16 plus.
Parent, carer or young person 16 plus
Parents can make a request for an assessment themselves but it is recommended that they speak to a member of staff where the child is placed first. If a child or young person is at school or college, the special educational needs co-ordinator (SENCO) could be able to make the request for them. If they feel it is most appropriate to self-request, this will need to be made in writing explaining the reasons why an EHCP should be put in place. They will need to provide as much information as possible regarding their child or young person’s health, education and care, including any reports or referrals from other services. This would then need to be emailed to Wigan's SEND team to be reviewed.
There are a lot of helpful letter templates found online. If they need more help to complete the form or for independent advice and support about needs assessments and EHC plans you can contact Wigan special educational needs and disability information and advice support service (SENDIASS) (external link).